Has the course already started? How is this different from your other courses in the Learning Center? What is a Healing Story Circle? Are we actually learning to rewrite stories with our kids? Does this work for older kids or even adults? How much time will it take each week? Do I need to go somewhere for this course?

I told her that if she was feeling sad and either she couldn’t find someone in that moment to give her a hug, *or* if she just didn’t want to have to do it right then, because she was out or having fun or something, then she could put her Sad in her pocket for later. I went on to say that she couldn’t put Sad in the trash can. There’s no getting rid of it and not taking care of it. But she could put it in her pocket and then later she could pull it out when it was a better time and get her hugs then.

Kids may or may not have words for what’s happening for them or what they’re worried about, but they will show you that something is bothering them through their behavior. They may be more aggressive than usual. They may seem sullen or quieter than normal. They may seem to have more energy. They may start to get sick more frequently or more severely. Our culture may label these things as misbehaviors or unrelated to things that have happened, but I’ve learned that most of the time they’re actually signs of stress, of a story that they can’t make sense of, or something that they need more support to handle.

Today we’re talking about how to support our kids and understand their experience of gun violence in our country.

I had a really moving conversation with my 12-year-old this afternoon about the Orlando massacre. He was talking about what he’s heard – so much about the person who killed and hurt so many innocent people. He doesn’t understand how someone could kill people because of who they love and he said, “Why are there so many bad people in the world?” I could feel the heaviness in his question. It was in that moment that I realized he is only hearing the bad parts – and there are plenty – in this awful time when many of my friends and clients and loved ones are no longer safe.

When your child is doing something that makes no sense to you, you make up a story to help make sense of it. Sometimes this story is helpful. Sometimes it’s not. We all do this. And it happened to us when we were growing up, too – our parent(s) made up stories about our behaviors.

Has the course already started? How is this different from your other courses in the Learning Center? What is a Healing Story Circle? Are we actually learning to rewrite stories with our kids? Does this work for older kids or even adults? How much time will it take each week? Do I need to go somewhere for this course?

So many behaviors are a mystery, especially with our kids. It often seems like they were born a certain way with interesting idiosyncrasies. Most of the time their idiosyncrasies are cute and we don’t worry too much about them. Sometimes they’re annoying. And sometimes they’re worrisome and have an impact on our relationship.

My story is about the incredible power of Story Healing and how my family was able to get through a really tough time with the help of this knowledge. I am forever grateful that I was able to help my daughter (and all of us) to heal emotionally from her difficult experience specifically because of the support I received from Rebecca to do this work.

Rebecca and Lianne are back again this week to talk about how stories can help with the small hurts and disappointments of everyday life. Story Healing isn’t just a technique to be used when there is trauma, but it can be an effective tool to help move through normal tantrums and upsets.

Amazon Associates Disclosure

The Consciously Parenting Project is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.